Upon hindsight of publishing the article here on TOC, I had published the piece on my blog on the 17th Oct – and have added the edifier of economic success and modernization.

While I agree with you that MM Lee might be perfectly happy with the comparison, I am not so much for the sake of the country.

Thanks for your sharing!

While I am, like you, neither pro nor anti-PAP, I must say that your perspective of Lim Swee Say’s comparison of Deng to Lee is lacking in scope:

I share your view of both leaders’ heavy-handedness and oft-irrational fear of dissent. However, it is only fair to credit both with policies that encouraged the incredible growth that might otherwise have remained elusive for both China and Singapore. When the minister made the comparison, I would be inclined to think that he was speaking in terms of their contributions to their respective countries’ economic growth.

Also, in Deng’s case, please remember that he needed to legitimize his power because of the larger-than-life status of his deceased predecessor. He did this by 1) creating wealth/spurring growth and 2) keeping a tight rein on opposition. Fortunately, Lee did not need to be as ruthless, because he did not face similar crises during his time as PM.

Last, Lee has stated publicly Deng is his most admired politician, hence he might be perfectly happy with the comparison.

-Isabelle

Darth Vader: “Only in sin PAP ministers hold multiple posts. They called this multi tasking. They work for both government and attched to boards of directors of major corporations payed by both and say they are fightning for the welfare and benefit of the poor. Only in singapore.”

I agree with DARTH VADER! Only in Singapore!

Singaporeans seeking treatment locally are placed under subsidised category and with the bed cruch issue facing the major hospitals here, this is bad news in terms of generating money.

Walk into any of our restructured hospitals and you will see subsidised clinics being converted to privatised ones. the wards are also being converted to accommodate privatised patients.

we are attracting patients from all over and now it seems that it is so successful that our hospitals have no time to treat subsidised Singaporeans.

So stand by for more increases. The old issue of upgrading will no more be relevant. Stand up for Singapore. Stand by for more increases should be our new national song for the future.

I read today the government has allowed us to draw on our medisave for medical overseas. And guess who benefits . Guess who is in charge of that establishment. Your guess is as good as mine. So coincidential. You ask me. I ask who,. But i know you know who la.

on the flip side; there is cause for conern for our lowly police officers.
seems like there is a new trend to blame them for everything when things go wrong.

“the police officer did it!” .

. . well, probably because there are not very many butlers in Singapore and most of them could only be found in the homes of millionaires..

Only in sin PAP ministers hold multiple posts. They called this multi tasking. They work for both government and attched to boards of directors of major corporations payed by both and say they are fightning for the welfare and benefit of the poor. Only in singapore.

Well said. Well done! It gives me a view of MP Lim H H as incompetent as most of the other MIW. What she basically done is nothing! She did not strongly oppose, and as an MP failure to have first hand information. What has she be doing? She need a lowly paid poor policeman to do her job of informing the residents. I am amazed at how much PAP MPs have fallen in their duties. I am utterly disgusted.

Li Jia Wei is quitting, so is the China coach and all this points to a failure to managed the STTC properly. So much so for the integration that should have help players like LI Jia Wei to feel as singaporeans. Another MP Lee Bee Wah should be chopped. What experience she has to run STTC? Do PAP think that all PAP MPs are highly talented creatures? You throw them in any organisation they can run it well? Remember the Dragon Boat incidents where our singaporeans rowers drown? Who is the chair? And so many more blunders this year for PAP and i hope they keep their mouth shut, especially woody GOH!

FG

That’s a good question you know! Not that it isn’t an entirely good thing – many employers have FAILED to give basic housing with WORKING toilet facilities. But the government is also saying NEVER MIND WE WILL TAKE OVER THE DUTY OF MAKING SURE YOUR FOREIGN WORKERS HAVE A NICE DORM.

Can you see the longterm outcome?
SPOILT BRATS —-> employers in construction businesses!

Not saying that the workers do not deserve an appropriate place to live in. But why is the government CLEANING SHIT which should be the responsibilities of the employers’???? Beats me!

GEMAMI: “Band together if you want results and want it fast.”
I wouldn’t dare to say if we will have results – at least WE GET HEARD!! So yeah…band together!

IF I TELL govt “HEY LOOK! Some old folks’ home charity may be receiving subsidies from MCYS illegally – want to know which charities may be fleecing taxpayers’ money?” may be they will care! OPEN YOUR EYES BIG BIG GOVERNORS – YOU’RE NOT TIGHT IN REGULATING CHARITIES!!!! That quarterly submission from charities is crap. Youth Challenge won’t be the last.

Lee described MP Lim Hwee Hua as “an island of calm authority in the swirl surrounding salubrious Serangoon Gardens,
which will house foreign workers in the coming year”.

It started with “a recent leak of the news (that) alarmed some residents, who equated foreign labour with construction males
who would disrupt the serene life there”. She went on to opine that there are two spectrums of opinions among the residents.
She said: “On one end are people who feel foreign workers build the economy and therefore should be accorded respect and
hospitality. In other words, we should try and have them intergrated into our way of life. At the other end are those wo do not
want too many foreigners . . . We like Singapore as it is, which is really our own familiar people”

She then offered a variation of this thinking: “Singapore should review the kind of growth we want, since growth aspirations have
consequences such as the arrival of foreigners.

Poser 1:
Why is there a sudden need to respect and provide hospitality to the foreign worker? What about those who have worked here
and ‘contributed to the economy’? What happened to the samsui women? What happened to the Thai workers who were
repartriated during the construction slump during the eighties. Up to 50,000 of them were rounded up and sent home.

Poser 2:
What use is it for Singaporeans to “review the kind of growth we want” when we do not have a share of this growth? Look at our
pay increases relative to the rate of inflation. Does the new focus on growth excludes Singaporeans now that the focus is on
building infrastructures that attract businesses and the tourist dollar?

Let’s see her reply to the above.
She said: “I believe growth is not so easily calibrated where you say I just want a bit less growth so that I don’t have to deal
with so many foreigners.We work very hard to get investments in. We can’t tell investors that we can deal with only half of your
investments or say, can you come next year?” She further added: “Singapore finds itself in an ironically happy situation where
investments are flooding in and require a whole lot of support. The dorms are one element”.

Poser 3:
The dorms, an investment? What about the ‘calibration’ to make sure these foreigners have places to stay before they are recruited
and not after they have arrived and lodging becomes an issue.

About the dorms as an element of investment, this is what was reported in the same article.
“Also vital was Mr Mah’s commitment that the dorm, set in an old school, will operate for no more than five years”.

Poser 4:
Investment indeed! More like making money out of the poor foreign worker. Under the guise of ‘respect and hospitality’, the government
has devised a plan that sounds so good so sincere as well as very easy on the ears when read out loud. But as with all PAP policies, the
goodness of it is just in the binding.

Let us be respectful and hospitable to our foreign brothers and sisters. Let us house them in an old school. Let us charge them rent that
is equivalent to twenty-thirty percent of their monthly salary. Five years later, we will find another old building to re-house them and charge
more.

She then uses the ERP as an analogy to explain the level of awareness for those living around and those living further away from the dorm.
She said: “A person who treasures his time may not mind the principle of more gantries if he gets to work fast with smoother traffic.
But if he has a gantry outside his home, the same person might feel a little differently”.

Nothing mentioned about the extra monies that goes into the national kitty.

The best part of the Insight interview comes next.

She said: “in the recent uproar, the dearth of information was a painful factor”.

Did she really said this? : . . . “the DEARTH OF INFORMATION was a painful factor”.

Now comes the blaming, Wong Kan Seng style.

She said: “Part of the trouble was that a police officer – who ironically worked well with the neighbourhood committee – spoke prematurely
about the dorm before the Ministry of National Development had made a full technical assessment. The officer also conveyed the sense that
it was a done deal”.

She again attributed the lack of information as one of the underlying reasons why the residents imagine the worst-case-scenario.

Now for the bombshell:

“As she tells it, when her neighbourhood committee alerted her to the stories, she e-mailed Mr Mah straightaway to ask if there were plans
to put in a dorm and, if so, why she, the MP, was not told. She then asked him to quicken the assessment so nobody would be left in suspense.

Poser 5:
a. police officer knows about it.
b. 1400 residents signed petition over it
c. Serangoon’s 7000+ residents knows about it
d. Mah Bow Tan knows about it
e. Lim Hwee Hua, MP, does not know about it.

Are we dumb?

On the assessment to build the dorm.

As reported, her main points to MND boiled down to traffic and disamenities.
She said: “I basically gave my views as the local MP that you can’t run it through the estate, period”.

Poser 6:
As an elected MP, this is how she argues for you? Just her views, period?

She said this about the intergration of locals and foreigners.
“Each Singaporean can conciously make an effort to engage (the foreigners) more. Even among Singaporeans, we should all try to interact
with our neighbours because we are all such busy people. This may make it more natural to engage with outsiders”.

Poser 7:
Is this the new National Service? Since when is it Singaporeans problem to help foreigners intergrate – and “because we are so busy”?

She ended her interview and this was the concluding comment from the ST correspondent.

ST: “Last Saturday, she had a garden party for residents who lived a little farther from the dorm. She and her team, which she credits often,
had fun.

Poser 8:
Why weren’t the foreigners invited to the party? So much for intergration.

Poser 9:
Why was the party held for only those who “lived farther from the dorm?”.
Is it because those living nearer the dorm are still cursing her? – all 1400 of them?

Moral of the story:
Band together if you want results and want it fast.

I look forward to a total change in the world. For so long has the PAP government ruled thru fear and by telling the people that they and only they can run the country. Stand up people of Singapore and prove to the government that one does not need to be a pap member to run the country.

I mean, the economy is not good, the people are suffering and the ministers congratulate themselves for a good job done (with the Mas Selemat, the Serangoon Gardens, the MAS’s initial refusal to deal with the Lehmann Brothers case until 1000 people turn up to protest, the electricity hike despite rapidly falling oil prices).

This is a government that only cares for itself, not for the people.

The Govt cares about how much CPF they can keep for themselves so that they have an ample and constant source of cheap funds.

The Govt cares so much about housing the people by ensuring the prices of public housing takes at least 20 years or more to pay for it so that it leaves you with nothing for retirement.

The Govt cares so much about ensuring the people have jobs that they make the males do national service and also have to compete for job opportunities with PRs and foreign workers.

The Govt cares about making sure they have a budget surplus every year so that they can have fun with it thinking they will make money on their investments.

The Govt cares about paying themselves as high a salary as shamelessly possible because they know the people they govern can’t do a thing about it.

The Govt cares about the elderly so much that they hope they will work themselves to death without flinching an eye about it.

Let us all be so grateful on how fortunate we are to have such a caring world class Govt.

Do we really need covered shelter from block to block (HDB)? All that isn’t free!! Now, who’s payin the price? Sometimes we have to see the big picture. An umbrella is not expensive to most.

Ronin mentioned about complex social benefits. The government need to go back to one of the principles of…surpise surprise…..MARKETING!

KISS
Keep
It
Simple
Silly

If the government starts giving a mundate that ‘forces’ employers to upgrade employees’ salaries, that may be the day I say YES GOVERNMENT GENUINELY CARES. For now, I just DON’T see it. (May be employers should start giving commissions atop of salaries. It is chaotic when everything from utility transport costs…fees…goes up but not our salaries. Otherwise this is a good reason to be your own boss.)

Do you know why our govt makes various social benefits schemes so complex and difficult to claim? So that the poor can go begging to PAP MPs…..and the MPs can gain political points by dishing out benefits, funded by taxpayers!!! Brilliant, right?